Sofa Shopping

We’ve got so much good shit in the works, you guys, it’s unreal. And a little overwhelming, actually. PROJECTS A-PLENTY! It’s about goddamned time for this blog to make a comeback, anyway, and we’ve got a passel of reasons to be posting over the coming year. JUST YOU WAIT!

One thing that we’re thinking about in earnest right now is buying a new couch. We’ve been living with hand-me-downs and curbside finds for years, and after spending the entirety of this winter complaining about back pains from sitting on our current one, it’s about time to think about upgrading. For reference, here’s a crappy picture of the current beast:

It’s gold velour and right out of the 70s, and while at first it’s extremely comfortable and intensely nap-worthy, after a while of sinking into it, it’s difficult to dismount and starts to hurt your back. It’s actually a sectional, although we put the shorter leg of it in storage when we “streamlined” our living room the last time we rearranged. It’s time for it to go.

The Blake sofa from here has quite a lot going for it: it’s deliciously long, very comfortable without being too deep or sinking, comes in what appears to be a good, durable fabric in great colors, and it’s offered at a fair price (although unfortunately, we qualify for “long distance shipping”, which comes to a whopping $225, yikes). It’s also made in either the USA or Italy, and since we’re avoiding Chinese-made goods, this is a good thing. Unfortunately, the closest Macy’s is somewhere near Chicago, so if anything ever goes wrong, we’re sort of screwed in terms of getting it fixed or replaced.

The Flexsteel couch, which we just discovered at our local Coralville Simpson’s Furniture, is pretty great as well: it comes with a lifetime warranty, it’s actually made in the state of Iowa (!!!), is made of materials that will definitely stand up to the test of time and wear-and-tear, and comes in a really wide variety of fabrics and colors, so it would be very customizable. Plus, we could probably swing cheap or free shipping from the dealer, and we’d have a local place to service it if anything ever goes wrong. The downside of this model is that it’s not as luxuriously long as the Blake (80″ vs. 88″ wide), and it’s definitely not nearly as comfortable.